The Rebel Assassin

Chapter 15: A Royal Thief

Nemia had theories. Lots of them. But she had no hard facts.

One of her theories was about where to get facts. The first option involved Kay. The second was one she'd rather not have to resort to.

So she tracked Kay down first, hovering in the tunnels of the Thieves' Dens until he walked past her, and then following on his heels.

His hair was darker than Morie's, but their eyes were the same hazel. They were both tall, a little intimidating. And they both reminded her of someone else right now.

The biggest difference, Nemia thought, was that while Morie's resting expression was almost a self-satisfied smirk, Kay's default was a slight crinkle of worry.

"Excuse me," she said, at his right shoulder. "Can I talk to you?"

"Uh..." he looked at her. "Nemia, right? Of course. Has something happened?"

"No. I just need some questions answered."

"Ysmay would probably —"

"Questions about your family," she clarified. "I was wondering, do you know why Morie wasn't taken to the castle until she was eight?"

Kay looked bewildered. "I don't really know anything about this whole... Guardian business." He glanced at her quickly, as if she might be offended. "It's just, being a Guardian got her taken away from us, you know? My parents weren't exactly happy to talk about it. Our parents, I mean."

"Sorry," she said, on uneven footing with him. It was awkward talking to the boy who shared Morie's blood when she'd had an entirely different family for so long. "But are you sure you can't remember anything?"

"Is it significant, that they took her when she was eight?"

"I think so. They took me when I was a baby. From what Gordan said about the Black Knight, he was also taken shortly after birth. But Morie's different. And the dreams I'm interpreting seem to hint that someone gave her to the royals. Like maybe your family was betrayed. There must have been something going on that..."

But Kay was shaking his head. "You're out of my depth. Dreams and all that, I don't know. All I can tell you is that the Sage came with some guards when she was eight and literally dragged her from our father's arms, and after a few months of our mother desperately petitioning the castle, we just stopped talking about it. It was like she was gone forever, until we ran into each other a few months ago here." He nodded toward the stairs that led up to the harbor of Maenar. They had come to a wide-open cavern that was the most crowded of the tunnels, used by regular thieves and fighters for drinking and making trouble away from prying eyes. "It was right here, actually. I was waiting to meet Therese, and I thought Morane was her — except then she said she was Adina, and... that was my sister. I didn't know for sure yet, but I turned out to be right." He sighed. "I wish she'd keep using Adina. I know you all knew her as Morane for years, but I didn't even know she had that name until we found each other again."

Nemia stared at him, digesting the story, head buzzing. Kay had just given her far more than he knew. Unfortunately, she was going to have to resort to option number two of fact-getting in order to do anything with it. "Thanks for trying," she said, and ducked into the crowd, weaving her way out.

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Maenar had once been the capital of Solangia. Nemia knew that was significant for many reasons — the rebellion choosing to headquarter itself there called back to an earlier age of Solangia, to the birth of the Guardian Cycle — but for her purposes, Maenar's old status was important for only one reason.

Maenar had a library.

Not just any library, like the collections of the six major universities or Solangia's other cities. But a royal library.